They did very well against Arsenal in August, and did not have Martinez available for that one. Arsenal will most likely be missing Calafiori, who scored the only goal in the previous match. I do not expect this to be a pleasant experience.
We aren't blowing away teams. We are winning but its belaboured. Man Utd are always up for us, even when they are not good. We have blown out City, Tottenham and Chelsea at least once in the last few years. We haven't done so with Man Utd. We win but its not by large margins. Last 10 meetings or so almost always 1 goal wins except for a 2-0 win in '24 and a 3-1 win in '23. We can't seem to get a blow out of them or Liverpool.
I only had time to watch a 10min highlights package and seemed a little AI generated to me. So all I saw was a late goal by Senegal which apparently was overruled (highlights didn't actually show that part), followed shortly by perhaps the most consequentially embarrassing panenka miss I think I've ever seen, which probably woulda given Morocco the title. I did not see any altercation or players leaving the pitch. Que paso?
Just saw nearly 30 minutes of extended highlights of the AFCON final. Crazy. Sidenote, I'd love to see the tournament one day. I hear the atmosphere is one big party. That said, the antics, refereeing, etc, has made the tournament look somewhat ridiculous. They need outside, non African refereeing, which is a shame to say. The elephant in the room is the north African (seen as Arab) vs the Sub Saharan Africa (black African) rivalry that underlines everything. If we are brave enough to say the quiet part out loud. there also seems a vague intra west African rivalry between those countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, etc, the old 'Gold Coast).
Yeah I agree I think he's going to join them. Should be interesting. I think next year all the big clubs will be much better. As for United they create the most chances in the league. If they can figure out the defensive structure could be a problem.
Think that's who's being referred to. He's good, but still a big drop off between him and peak Rodri.
Transfer flow wrote about him again today Speaking of City, their rumoured pursuit of Elliott Anderson makes too much sense to be fake. Kim did a poll on “Anderson vs. Adam Wharton for the same price,” and 57% of you picked Wharton, which makes sense given the hype, but was also slightly surprising in that it wasn’t more lopsided? I would not be shocked if the number for either player is £100M+. https://www.thetransferflow.com/p/defensive-reinforcements-on-the-way-for-chelsea
Who isn't a big drop off to peak Rodri? I think there's an argument that they could win a title if they could patch up their defence and help out their midfield. Anderson brings a lot of basic functionality they don't have - especially because Rodri can't play so many games On the other hand, if they have to pay 100m for him, then it might be too short termist?
They tried to get Rice, now they'll get Anderson. It's not rocket science. As for the money who cares, as long as the player performs. Money only matters if the player stinks or doesn't fit.
I think Anderson is really decent personally, certainly a better 6 than rice. We were very fortunate to land Rice of course - total unicorn player IMO
I think they want to move Rodri/Gonzalez up and have Anderson as the 6 or some profile like that. Rice is probably best 8 in the league, dont know who else would even figure
I don’t have the specifics, but basically, the game was tied and in the last minute of injury time. Morocco had a corner, and on that corner, a Senegalese player pulled down a Moroccan player. The ref didn’t see it, but the Morroccan player made a big fuss about it and wouldn’t let it go, and for reasons I don’t know, the ref decided to check VAR. He saw the pull down and awarded a penalty. The Senegalese players and the coach became outraged, thought they were being cheated (the ref awarded a penalty he didn’t see at the end of the game for the home team), and they started fighting. Eventually, the coach told the entire Senegalese team to walk off the field, which they all did going back into the locker room. This lasted over ten minutes. The ref didn’t know what to do. Morocco didn’t know what to do. It was mayhem. Eventually, Mane convinced the Senegalese players to come back out and to finish the game by allowing Morocco to take the final PK in the last few seconds of the game. They did. The Moroccan player missed. They go into overtime, and Senegal scores and wins the game. It was madness. I just don’t know how Senegal wasn't disqualified, but I don’t really know the rules for something like that.
I am not sure peak Rodri can be enough of a cover for most of man city midfielders and wing backs consistent inability to win duels
That's not the reason why they aren't good this year. They just don't control the ball the way they used to.
The players they brought in this summer, namely Reijnders and Cherki, don’t do enough off the ball. If I were a City supporter, I’d have hated those signings.
Saw a graphic yesterday that showed City has purchased a 4-3-3 starting lineup (GK, 4 DF, 3 MF, 3 FW) of players in the last year (Jan 25, Summer 25, Jan 26).
Have City changed the way they are playing, which at times is more direct and counter attacking, because of who they have available or because Pepe thinks the game is changing. He now has a competent CB in Guehi but they still struggle at FB.
I'm glad someone pointed it out. Every time I watch City play I ask myself "who the hell even are some of these guys?!?"
I think both things are true It seems to be generally accepted that after positional football became the dominant approach at all levels, in the last couple of years we've seen a reaction to that. e.g man orientation in defence But also Pep's team became bad at the hardcore Pep stuff - e.g their press is a disaster, and they don't have the possession dominant trio of Rodri, Gundo and KDB - truly one of the most insanely talented midfields you'll ever see.
Morning scouting opportunity: our final league phase opponents, Kairat Almaty, host Club Brugge at 10:30 Eastern
Because of this, the post 23/24 Arsenal looks worse in a lot of respects than what came before. But I think it also looks more feasible than most other approaches in the modern game in the new tactical landscape.— Jon Mackenzie (@Jon_Mackenzie) January 18, 2026 This is why Arsenal are the best team in the league now but why they didn't win the league in 22-24: because in that meta, City were still competitive. That has now gone and Arteta now finds himself in a new space where he is closer to dominating than anyone else.— Jon Mackenzie (@Jon_Mackenzie) January 18, 2026 Compare Arsenal now to then, though, and at least in terms of the in-possesion side, it definitely looks worse imo.— Jon Mackenzie (@Jon_Mackenzie) January 18, 2026